Veldrijden...

is Dutch for "field riding", or what the rest of the world calls cyclocross. They've got their own name for it, see, because in Belgium they simply do 'cross better than everyone else.

As Greg Keller over at Mud & Cowbells put it, "There's something inherently different about their riding." An old man approached him after a race in the cyclocross motherland and cleared up the mystery. “You Americans are too nice... our boys are going across the same fields in the mud they had to work in as young boys. So, they’re angrier. You need to try working in a field.”

Anger. The killer instinct. Can a guy train for that? I'll put it on my list, because I'm gonna race in Belgium someday.

Read Keller's piece at Cyclocross Magazine. 4 bacons, mate.